Knowing You Are Sick – Luke 5:27-32

Here is a list of symptoms from Oklahoma.gov that might indicate you have the Covid-19 virus:  “Headache, New loss of taste or smell, Sore throat, Congestion or runny nose, Nausea or vomiting, Diarrhea.  This list does not include all possible symptoms.  Look for emergency warning signs for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:  Trouble breathing, Persistent pain or pressure in the chest, New confusion, Inability to wake or stay awake, Bluish lips or face.”  Could you be sick and not know it?  Of course.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

   And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  (Luke 5:27-32 ESV)

It was the custom of rabbis to take protégés, disciples whom they could teach what they knew and so develop the next generation of religious leaders.  They would look for men like Saul of Tarsus whose family was well to do and sent him to Jerusalem to study under the well-known rabbi Gamaliel.  No self-respecting rabbi would look for disciples among common people, let alone among the tax-collectors.  But Jesus did.

Matthew must have already had a relationship with Jesus, had been listening to his teaching and become a disciple in general, but now Jesus asked him to leave his profession in order to follow Jesus full time.  In his great joy Matthew invited all his friends to celebrate with him and to introduce them to Jesus if they didn’t know him already.  Sinners loved Jesus.

The Pharisees and scribes did not love Jesus and were bothered by the fact that he spent such intimate time with notorious sinners.  For them, people who did not take on their discipline didn’t care enough about God or the Law, and people like Levi (also called Matthew, Matthew 9:9) were out-and-out traitors to their people for helping Rome collect taxes and probably cheating people out of money.

Jesus response to this is the sweetest statement a lost soul could ever hear:  I’m the physician to those who are sick.  I’m looking for repentant sinners, not those who think they are already righteous.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being my way to God.